Posts by Craig Ranapia
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As our friend Garth some illuminatingly illustrates, one of the advantages of being a septuagenarian is he doesn't have to give a damn.
Heh... I think Judy would beg to differ if she found her business and home on the line because her husband injudiciously found himself on the thick end of a defamation settlement. :)
And, hell, out of all the things you can righteously slap Duncan Garner around for, Edwards couldn't do better than digging up what boils down to a pretty rancid nugget of media goss?
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And while it's a bit late for Media 7, I'd love Mediawatch to put this Pasifika-flavoured question to the Radio Network. (Full disclosure: I'm a regular contributor to Public Address Radio. PAR is broadcast by Radio Live - a direct competitor to TRN station NewstalkZB.)
David Fane cops a week's suspension for grossly offensive comments made off-air at a "media event".
Will The Radio Network be taking a similarly zero tolerance approach to on-air fag-baiting and racist mouth-farts on Newstalk ZB and Radio Sports?
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C'mon man jesus isn't all bad.
@Jeremy: If I thought Jesus was bad at all, I wouldn't be a devout Catholic would I? I take both my faith and politics very seriously; seriously enough to think that the separation of church and state should apply on the campaign trail as well and there's something rather distasteful about anyone invoking Jesus while they're trying to play a hand of sympathy cards.
and I was reading about Garner on Brian Edwards site last night. The verbal and physical abuse he gave Chris Carter at an airport and on a plane would have meant instant dismissal in the private secta.
ORLY? I'm not Duncan Garner's biggest fan, but in the private sector I think any prudent employer would be wise to tread carefully in sacking anyone on the basis of unsubstantiated (and ultimately unverifiable) gossip. And if Edwards was an employee of mine, I'd be having a free and frank exchange of views on how on-line bitching about co-workers can be injurious to your continued employment.
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Well you're no fun ...
Well, can't say the sight of politicians getting with Team Jesus does much for my pleasure centres either.
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The point I was making was that the gun does not have to be fired by the leader.
My point is that leaders don't run around with firearms as often as you might think. Whatever the Standardistas want to believe, Phil Goff's diary was not the primary consideration in the timing of the release which was well-signalled. And unless Key's an exceptional actor, he sure seemed as surprised and pissed off as anyone by Tim Grosser's mini-bar tab and Phil Heatley's not at all fantastic plastic abuse.
Hell, let's not be naive here. Of course politicians are going to try to influence and direct the news agenda to their liking. That's why Helen Clark hired a very sharp operator in Mike Munro as chief press secretary, and kept him around for a decade. She also worked damn hard to work the media, which she'd be the first to admit was not a comfortable experience. Some people are instinctive "retail" politicians -- Bill Clinton is still a fragging Jedi master at working a rope line and charming the pants off of every hack in a 2 mile radius. Helen Clark and John Key aren't.
But if anyone things the relationship between politician and media is tame bitch and master rather than delicately balanced mutual parasitism is missing something much more interesting.
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Oh, Sacha -- take it from someone who's actually worked as a journalist that if you burn a source (not matter how much I think, as a civie, that they deserve it) you might as well torch your contact book and see if they're hiring at Burger King.
OK, got to fisk my own arse here given that I've been extremely critical of newspapers running stories with no on the record sources, so readers can make their own determination about what agendas might be in play that affect the credibility of the story.
I had it drummed into me at journalism school that you never ever out a source or lie about an interview being off the record. That said, I would like journalists to be a damn sight more on the ball about being co-opted into other's agendas and respectful of their readers.
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How to keep your hands clean:
John Key approved the release of the Credit cards. He said little but as expected the MSM really did the work for him.
Jesus Christ, I don't know how John Key and Helen Clark tear themselves away from the more wing-nutty corners of the internet. It would do wonders for my self-esteem to be reminded with every tap of the F5 key on my laptop people think I'm a creature of Machiavellian cunning, Satanic malevolence and God-like omnipotence.
Not if you desperately wanted to agree with their lies - check the tone of that story
Oh, Sacha -- take it from someone who's actually worked as a journalist that if you burn a source (not matter how much I think, as a civie, that they deserve it) you might as well torch your contact book and see if they're hiring at Burger King.
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Agreed but still pretty quick to be PM is it not?
I don't know about that. I know it's not an exactly analogy but let's compare the resumes of two politicians, and tell me who'd you'd vote for in a fantasy American election.
Behind Door #1:
Vice President of the United States (8 years)
Secretary of Defense (4 years)
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (10 years)
White House Chief of Staff (2 years)
Various sub-Cabinet staff positions (6 years)Door #2:
US Senator (4 years)
State Senator (7 years)If you chose the more experienced candidate, congratulations. You've just chosen Dick Cheney over the incumbent President of the United States. :)
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I've just been told that Ralston has been dropped from Banks' campaign, although I have no idea why, assuming it's true.
And if true, you can't help but pose the Palin Perplex: "You can't run a competent and disciplined campaign, but you want me to trust you to headline a government that will closely resemble a sack of hungry weasels on crank?"
Oh well, I'll always have I, Claudius -- at least that's entertaining. :)
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If Team Len wants to go on the attack it could focus on Banks' fleet of advisers and sidemen. Who are these people? What do they do? What are their connections? The candidate says he doesn't want to go negative. But he might find that serves him better than continually turning on the emotional gusher in the presence of journalists.
Got to disagree with you there. First, because I wouldn't be over confident that 'Team Len' doesn't have some rather unsavoury "advisers and sidemen" of their own. And there's still plenty of questions to be answered about who's behind Our Auckland, who's paying for the Brown bus shelter ads that have sprung up all over the Shore etc.
Second, and to be coldly cynical, Brown's biggest electoral asset is that he's not John Banks. While it's not the ground I want this campaign fought on, strategically "Banks is a cunt. I'm not Banks. That's all you need to know to VOTE ME!" works a treat.
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